Echexs

Below, you can read a description of Jean-Louis Cazaux of a hexagonal
chess variant, he based on hexagonal chess variants by Dave Mc Cooey and
Stephen P. Kennedy, which he created in 1998.

Another hexagonal chess again ? Well, this is not exactly a new game.
It is more a fusion between two already announced hex chess to create an
optimized 3 or 6 players game.

The first one is Chexs from Stephen P.Kennedy
which brings the good idea of grouping all piece on corners rather than
placing them along the sides. For games for more than 2 players, this avoids
a contact between opposite forces. My very personal point of view is that
the weakness in this game is the use of only 2 Bishops placed on the same
color. The second game has the solution. It is Hexagonal
Chess from Dave McCooey which uses all possible piece. Its initial
arrangement is more compact than the traditional Glinski's
game. If for 2 players I prefer Glinski's, I think that McCooey's
is very well suited for more crowdy board like for 3 or 6 players.

Rules

Players

The game is played with three or six players.

Materials and setup

The setup for the three-player game is:

The setup for the six-player game is:

The board is a 6-cases side hexagon (91 cases) for the 3-players game,
and a 9-cases side hexagon (217 cases) for the 6-players game. In both
games every player has 16 men : 1 King, 1 Queen, 3 Bishops, 2 Knights,
2 Rooks and 7 Pawns. The King is always on the right side of the Queen.

Moves and captures

To be consistent with Glinski's chess which
is the most famous of Hexagonal chess, all piece move and capture as in
this game. (Let's point out that this differs from original move of Kennedy's
King and McCooey's Pawn).

Other rules

The Pawn may promote when reaching one of the 11 (3-p) or 17 (6-p) case
on the opposite sides on the board.

End of game

As for any game for more than 2 players, several scenarios are possible.
The simplest is to adopt the following rules :

A checked player should try to remove it when it is his turn of play.

A checkmated player is eliminated. His King is removed and his piece
go under the control of the player who initiated the first check which
led to checkmat. His Pawn still continue to move in the same direction.

The payer who take control of another's pieces does not take is turn
to play.

This is Excellent, The only this that I see wrong is that you say that
'every player has 18 men : 1 King, 1 Queen, 3 Bishops, 2 Knights, 2 Rooks
and 9 Pawns' I only see seven pawns????? and I see a total of 16 men,
not 18?????